Hey Dad..! Wiki
Welcome to the Wiki Martin Kelly, a 40 year old architect, singlehandedly raises his children Simon,17, Debbie,16 and Jenny, 6. His wife Margaret had died three years earlier from Cancer. Martin runs his own architectural business from the family home in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood. He employs his cousin Betty Wilson, a good natured ditz from the New South Wales country town of Walgett, as his secretary. Many episodes deal with the daily stresses Martin faces as the family patriarch, such as settling arguments amongst his children. He frequently endures Betty's elaborate excuses for tardiness and is constantly frustrated with her delayed productivity at work. Simon's best friend is Gerald "Nudge" Noritis, a neighbour who constantly helps himself to whatever food he can find in the Kellys' kitchen. In early episodes the show briefly examines how the characters are struggling to deal with the absence of Margaret from their lives. Character replacements As the series progressed the original characters left one by one. Replacement characters were introduced to maintain the balance of the show's cast. The roles of two of Martin Kelly's children—Simon (originally played by Paul Smith from the pilot episode til late 1987, was replaced by Christopher Mayer, who played Simon from 1988 till 1991) and Jenny (originally played by Sarah Monahan from the pilot episode till early 1993 was replaced by Angela Keep played Jenny, for the remainder of 1993 til July 1994)—were recast during the show's run after the original actors left the series. Early in season 5 Debbie Kelly moves to Dunk Island to work as a waitress. She is replaced by new character Sam Kelly, Martin's niece from Hong Kong who moves in and is adopted by Martin not long afterwards. Nudge departs after the conclusion of season 5. No explanation is given in the show's story to explain his disappearance. From season 6, schoolboy Arthur MacArthur is the new neighbour who regularly visits. At the end of season 6, Simon moves out, leaving his friend Ben to move into Simon's room. At the end of season 12, Martin leaves for a $300,000-per-year contract to design and build a deep water port and mini-city in Saudi Arabia. He leaves the house and the business in the care of old friend Greg Russell. Sam moves to Adelaide soon after, opening the door for Greg's daughter Tracy to move in. At the end of the series Betty and Jenny are the only remaining original characters. Jenny is portrayed by a different actress (Angela Keep) by this stage. Betty's portrayer Julie McGregor is the only original cast member to remain through the entire series. Final episode In the series finale the regular characters are held hostage in the house by a fugitive bank robber. The robber places a bomb in the family's VCR, as leverage with the police. After the hostage drama has been resolved and the robber arrested the family remembers there's a bomb in the VCR, but they don't know how to re-program it. Betty observes that "this is just like E Street... at the end, where they all got blown up", but Greg responds that "That doesn't happen in sitcoms." (Greg's portrayer Mark Owen-Taylor had acted in E Street.) The characters panic as they countdown the seconds to the expected explosion and the screen fades to black. The cast are then shown in a curtain call as the credits roll. The curtain call includes former regular cast members Christopher Truswell and Sarah Monahan who do not otherwise appear in the episode, series producer and writer Gary Reilly and writer John Flanagan. The Hey Dad..! pilot was recorded in September 1985. The project stalled for several months as network executives were initially reluctant to commission the series. Twelve episodes were then recorded in mid-1986. The series was very close to being cancelled before it was even aired. The Seven Network ultimately bought the series, airing the first episode on 11 February 1987. One episode was taped each week. Rehearsals generally started on a Tuesday, and were held each day until Saturday, when taping would take place before a studio audience at ATN Channel 7 Studios in Epping, New South Wales. The same episode was recorded twice on the same night in front of two different audiences. The taping with the better overall performance and more enthusiastic audience response was usually selected as the one to be aired. Sometimes the best takes from both tapings would be combined in post-production. Production took a temporary break in mid-1991 when Hampton Court, another Gary Reilly sitcom featuring Betty Wilson, was produced. Hey Dad..! production resumed afterwards. Seven decided not to renew Hampton Court for a second season. Hey Dad..! often used the same studio as another Seven Network series Home and Away. The night before Hey Dad..! was to be recorded in front of an audience, the crew would work overnight to take down the Home and Away set, replacing it with the Hey Dad..! set. After the Hey Dad..! tapings concluded on Saturday night, the Hey Dad..! set would be dismantled and replaced with the Home and Away set once again. This was a regular occurrence for the entire run of the series. The exterior shots of the Kelly house were filmed using a miniature model constructed by British artist and designer Mike Worrall. Recording of the exteriors took place in-studio over the course of a two-day period, undergoing a range of lighting situations to re-create various weather conditions and times of day. Producers often found themselves taking phone calls from people wanting to know the address of the house, with the hope of purchasing it and moving in. After the series ended, the model was stored by the producers, as no museums were able to take it at the time. However, the model eventually disintegrated while in storage, and is no longer in existence. Replace this with the name of your topic Write an introduction to your topic here, to explain to your readers what your topic is all about! Latest activity Category:Browse